San Diego Marriott Gaslamp Quarter — Hotel in San Diego

Not Perfect But They Went Above & Beyond This was a crazy short overnight trip to San Diego, made shorter by a ER trip!

We were in town to see a Padres game (our first), stay the night here, and then explore the gas lamp and Coronado the next day before heading home.

We arrived around 130 and dropped our car at the valet - the cost was included with the room (not the tip of course). The lobby was spotless and classy and thankfully we were able to check in early. We had requested it ahead of time but there is no guarantee.

The room was nice but was lacking 2 amenities we always use when staying other places: a mini fridge, and a luggage stool/holder. San Diego wasn't that hot so we just dealt with not being able to chill our drinks and also didn't plan on storing left over food that needed a fridge. Not having a luggage holder was a bit annoying, so we improvised and used the desk in the room. Room was clean and stocked with linen, TP and coffee.

The view was really nice from our room. You can see the stadium and some points beyond.

After the game we made a quick stop back in the room and decided to go up to the roof for a couple drinks at the bar. The view from up there is also AMAZING. We had not drank at the ballgame and only order one drink each. They were strong. lol

We fell asleep very quickly after returning to the room. My partner woke up a couple hours later with a severe migraine and was nauseous and puking. This continued all morning. I ordered breakfast for myself and specifically asked for toast and a banana (for partner) and brought it back up to the room. There is no delivery for room service here. When I opened the bag in the room I noticed that they toast wasn't even there. Frankly, I didn't want to make the journey back down nor have the energy to complain at that point, so I tried to get my partner to take a bite of the banana at least. They did, and promptly barfed again.

At this point, she was shaking, hands and head getting numb, and couldn't walk or stand to get to the car and be taken to an urgent care. I got on the phone and called downstairs telling them we had an emergency, etc - they called 911 for me and sent a lady up to wait with us in the room. (I'm so sorry I didn't get your name! Thank you for your help!)

EMTs arrive and take my poor, embarrassed partner away to a local Kaiser hospital. She even asked if they could take her out a back entrance (there was none lol).

The hotel said I could stay as late as I needed to, but I was good and wanted to get checked out before heading to the hospital - so we could just head home after they got the pain, dizziness, nausea and now dehydration under control. I finished packing up, called down to the valet and went downstairs to check out.

I miss a personal way of checking out. I like seeing a breakdown of costs and the final bill, but I didn't see a way to check out using the TV, nor was there a paper of any sort given. They just told me I was good to go. :\

The valet had a line of people waiting for keys - I think they were a bit understaffed. The cars were there, just no one handing out keys. My car came around the corner so I caught the valet as he was coming out with my ticket and a nice tip for him and was able to hit the road quickly.

We were both bummed as we wanted to try out their breakfast buffet in person but it was not in the cards this trip. Yes, we would stay here again, even with the missing amenities, etc. If you're catching a Padres game its PERFECT to stay at.

On a personal note, all is well. ER got the migraine under control after a few hours and we were able...

If you are a family of 4 and need two beds, bring an air mattress. Read on for the full story, but the summary is to just stay at the Omni San Diego Hotel at the Ballpark a block away!

I reserved at San Diego Marriott Gaslamp Quarter a 2 bed room for 3 nights on concierge level about 3 weeks before our stay for my family of 4. Our family is my wife and twin 14 year old boys. Our trip to San Diego was to celebrate our 22nd anniversary the prior weekend and my wife's 45th birthday the next weekend.

I did not check in early on the app (maybe things would be different if I did) because it seemed to want to give us a mobile phone room key. My kids are at an age where they have smartphones, but we don't want them on the devices non-stop. Parents understand the struggle. I thought I'd just check in at the desk on arrival and get us all physical room cards instead. I had a reserved room, so no big deal... I thought.

After driving from the airport, we arrived at around 8:30pm and at check in learned our room had been given away due to an "emergency". Now, emergency means different things to different people. Maybe the local hospital was full and they needed space for emergency heart surgery. In that case, a life was saved and I applaud Marriott. My reserved room is an inconsequential inconvenience at that point. That's an emergency. I doubt their definition of emergency as they nonchalantly pitched it to my family multiple times came close to that

I was offered a free room for the night at their Gaylord resort 10 minutes away and could then relocate back to the original proper the next afternoon, but that hassle didn't work for what we had planned the next day. I was also offered Marriott points, the devaluing crypto of the hotel world that can only be spent with them. I countered with them giving a room for my wife and I, and a separate room for my kids to share the next two nights. To them, I may as well have been asking to be in the next rocket to the moon. I kept asking how they were going to compensate my stay to make things right "But how about some points?", they kept offering. No thank you

We took the only room at the property they offered as available, A single king and a rollaway. It was late, I have my family in tow, I've worked and traveled all day, and didn't have further capacity to continue what had become an unfruitful and heated dialogue with the staff and supervisors that night. They clearly didn't have other options and didn't personally cause the problem to begin with.

We were told we could have a suite and two rollaways the remainder of our stay if it opened up, but not given a guarantee.

We stayed the night in the single king bed room, got a rollaway for one kid, and had one child sleep on the floor (picture attached). This is where you need to bring your air mattress just in case!

We booked a room at the Omni a block away first thing in the morning, wheeled our luggage to their site, and cancelled the rest of our stay at the Marriott. Marriott did offer me their devaluing crypto points again to make it better if we stayed. "But how about some points?". Can't blame for trying again I suppose 😂

Omni understood our status as hotel refugees, moved mountains to enable us to check in earlier than their normal 4pm time, and gave us the room they promised. Their hotel is newly refurbished and looks great. It truly is the better option for families even when I am objective and ignore the problems we had at Marriott..

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your stay at Omni San Diego Hotel at...

Wow ... what a Jekyll & Hyde kind of experience at this hotel ...

For everything they do well, they do something else to shoot themselves in the foot.

Location is great. Right next to Petco and you can watch the game from the rooftop bar. Great for walking around the Gaslight district and down to the bay, Seaport Village, and all the sights along the water.

Housekeeping and restaurant staff are wonderful. A+ in service from them. My 2 stars do not reflect how hard those people work to please. Top notch!

Rooms are dated but adequate. Would expect a bit more at this price point but we were only in the room to sleep and things were ok. We got on the Concierge floor (21) and found the lounge to be a little gem with free breakfast and snacks - plus a great view of Petco.

However ...

Front desk staff act as if they're doing you a favor just to serve you or - God forbid! - answer a question. Check-in was horrendous. They promised a call when our rooms were ready but - oops! - we forgot (3 hours later). Check out was equally frustrating ... we left early for a flight to the east coast and were informed at 4:30am that our zero balance (printed) folio would not be ready until after they rolled the machines at 5:00am. Ok. I get it ... except 5 minutes after we left at 4:35am I got an e-mail with our zero balance. Translation, the attendant - who wasn't anywhere to be found when we got to the lobby in the first place - didn't feel like printing our bill.

On the weekends they say the concierge service is available starting at 7am, but that's not true. We went down to the desk (see above) and were told that it's not open on weekends for full service. When we, and others, inquired about breakfast we were told we needed vouchers. Ok - can you just give them to us? No ... a deep dive on our account was necessary, with accusations that we were not entitled (even though they acknowledged we were staying on the concierge floor) ... then finally - begrudgingly - offering us vouchers but with a stern verbal warning about when they were to be used.

Seriously??? Give me a break.

Now for the coup de grasse ...

They have a nice bar on the roof - "Altitudes". Great view of the park and nice wait staff / bartenders. Trouble is that there are only 4 elevators for the whole hotel and they take 2 off-line to service the bar only during select times, making paying guests wait upwards of 10 minutes to get an elevator to our rooms. Just inexcusable in my view. Similarly, if you're at the bar and want to go down to your room and you happen to get on one of the "reserved" elevators (they're not marked) you can't get off at your floor ... you have to go all the way to the lobby and get in queue to go back to your room. We paid $500/night on average for our room. I'd think Marriott made more from us than from some post-game partiers.

Bottom line - I'm a lifetime gold / platinum member with Marriott and will continue to use their hotels. This one needs, as the late Jimmy Buffet would say, a "change...